Re: Books reviewed
From: Ginny Caughey [MVP] (ginny.caughey.online_at_wasteworks.com)
Date: 06/01/04
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Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 15:05:01 -0400
Earl,
I just picked up a brand new book at TechEd last week that looks mighty
handy for new VB.Net developers for the Compact Framework. It's called .Net
Compact Framework Pocket Guide by Wei-Meng Lee (O'Reilly) ISBN
0-596-00757-4. The whole book isn't much larger than a PocketPC, and except
for not mentioning www.OpenNetCF.org as a great source for free .Net
classes, it contains pretty much everything a VB developer needs to get
started. It's available here
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/compactframeworkpg/index.html and at other
online stores.
-- Ginny Caughey .Net Compact Framework MVP Have an opinion on the effectiveness of Microsoft Embedded newsgroups? Let Microsoft know! https://www.windowsembeddedeval.com/community/newsgroups "Earl comcast net>" <brikshoe<at.> wrote in message news:uHTOQUYREHA.3528@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl... > I've been on a mission this past year to move from VB6 to .Net. I'm > fortunate(!?) not to have the big catalog of some long-time VB developers, > although I have some CE apps that have to be entirely rewritten in CF. A lot > of what I develop has to be written for the PPc, so I knew I would be > looking for information in .Net, ADO.Net, CF -- and SQL Server. > > So in the spirit that others might benefit from my journey, here are my > observations. Having been a tech writer many years ago (and a page designer > before that), I give these reviews with the caveat that I know how difficult > it is to write technical literature and also how difficult it is to pull > together all the aspects of a book. Thus I'm not going to give much about > any specific errors or bugs, but a general feel for the book and how it > helped me. > > I will also give the caveat that I've never read ANY book that didn't give > up some useful bits of information -- no matter how bad that book might be > otherwise. Final caveat is that I'm not there yet -- I'm still learning much > as I develop and I'll still have many questions here. But I don't see my > opinions changing on the books I'm reviewing here. > > The following list is in no particular author order: > > Introducing Microsoft.Net 2nd Ed (note: the 3rd Ed is out now), David S. > Platt > As its title implies, its a great book to get you started in the .Net way of > thinking. There are some examples, but that is not really the focus of the > book. Touches briefly on all areas of .Net. I wish I had read this book > first. > > VB.Net, Matthew McDonald > Strange, I've never seen any reviews of this book, and I got it for $10 at > the half-price bookstore, but its chock-full of information and examples. > The book is aimed at developers moving from VB to .Net, so it was right up > my alley. If you can find it, buy it. > > Visual Basic.Net, Matt Tagliaferri > Another out-of-the-mainstream book (spell that c-h-e-a-p) with some good > stuff in it. If you are interested in GDI, this might get you kickstarted. > Also gave me some intro to the datareader and datasets. > > Visual Basic.Net Database Programming, Evangelos Petroutsos, Asli Bilgin > I've seen this book slammed in a few reviews, but I feel that's totally > undeserved. This is a very good book for those just starting with ADO.Net. > Its deep enough, it gives you a lot of great examples, and is fairly well > illustrated. I do have some minor heartburn as follows. Some of the examples > that required the Command Builder to be used did not show those in the code > example. Literally, those examples would not run (I'm thinking this was one > of the places that William Ryan straightened me out). Next, a few of the > illustrations were actually screen shots of the code that were too small to > read (altho in fairness, you have a CD to pull the code up in front of > you -- I'm not much on using the CDs unless I do not understand the written > word). Finally, the layout of the book is kinda goofy as regards the > DataReader (you have to look in a couple of different areas where the > material should have been pulled together). I have about a dozen pages > tabbed for future reference, so that may give you some idea that despite my > misgivings about a few errors, I still find the book very useful. > > Microsoft ADO.Net, David Sceppa > In the lingo of the 20-something crowd, this book is "the bomb". I'd read > reviews of how good this book is, and its reputation is well-deserved. I > have not finished the book yet, but after several chapters (and some peeks > ahead into the "Questions that should be asked more frequently"), I can see > already that I'll feel more secure in my knowledge of ADO.Net once I'm > finished. I'm thinking that this is probably the only book I've ever paid > full-price for. If you were to be stuck with the task of creating a robust > application with just any 3 books, this would be 1 of the 3. More about this > anon. > > .Net Compact Framework, Craig Morris, et. al. > One of the first books I bought and should've been one of the last. Examples > all in C#, and since I had no .Net experience at the time, I didn't spend > much time with it. Fairly lightweight tome, but I'm hanging on to it and > intend to get back to it > > Microsoft .Net Compact Framework Kick Start, Erik Rubin, Ronnie Yates > This book helped me out tremendously, not only with the CF, but on how to > work with the datagrid and datatables. I do not claim to being there > completely, but using some pieces of this book in conjunction with answers > from the afore-mentioned William Ryan in the forums, I can at least > visualize most of the concepts I need to pull things together. > > Microsoft .Net Compact Framework, Andy Wigley, Stephen Wheelwright > I have not finished this book. Examples all in C#, and highly technical > (these guys might be wound a little too tight, and might want to check out > www.moosehead.com). I'm counting on this to fill in the holes in my > technical knowledge once I have the nuts and bolts down. > > C# Text Manipulation Handbook, Francois Liger, et. al. > I found this book also at the half-price book store and oh I love it as a > reference! This little gem has helped me tremendously with casts, parsing, > math manipulations, numbers to strings, strings to date, you name it. Even > if you write only in VB.Net, the examples are easy to read/convert. This > book will save you hours and hours of frustration with casting issues. Buy > it. > > Professional SQL Server 2000 Database Design, Louis Davidson > How did books about SQL Server land on the .Net list? Frankly, you will miss > more than half the journey if you try to learn.Net in a vacuum without some > knowledge of SQL Server. This book is so language-agnostic, it is an > excellent resource. Written in a very user-friendly conversational tone, I > have been enjoying it tremendously -- while learning much along the way. > > Troubleshooting SQL, Forrest Houlette > I found this book totally by accident. It deals exclusively with > troubleshooting SQL statements. Heck, while I realized the depth of SQL, I > never envisioned that someone could write such a "troubleshooting" book that > was language-independent. Using this book in conjunction with "The Practical > SQL Handbook", "SQL Queries for Mere Mortals" and "Database Design for Mere > Mortals" will make you much more confident in your SQL abilities. > > SQL Server Black Book, Patrick Dalton, Paul Whitehead > I really appreciate the "black book" series of books. They helped me > tremendously with VB and got me started with understanding C++. But for some > reasons, this particular black book has not been as helpful. Its just as > big, has just as many examples in it, but for some reason, I feel > disconnected and the descriptive material feels lightweight. This book will > remain a reference for me, but I'm somewhat scratching my head about some > topics in the book. > > ADO.Net Step-by-Step, Rebecca Riordin > Of all the tech books I've bought over the last 4 years, this is the only > one I've ever returned and I did that last night. Because I consider books I > buy to be such a repository of reference material, I struggled with even > returning it, but something about the book just did not fit my way of > thinking (which cannot be considered a knock on the author at all!). I've > read some reviews about the book that it has errors and buggy code, but I > did not get past the 2nd chapter nor even crack the CD, so I'll not lay that > out as an issue either. I think that maybe part of the problem was that I > had some knowledge already and clunking around with a "step-by-step" manual > was like having someone eager to drive a racecar but their instructor wants > to show them how to use the shifter. This book probably has a target > audience that I didn't fit in. > > Visual Basic.Net, Richard Bowman > One of my bargain purchases that was a dog. If the author's name is not on > the cover of the book, that should be some sort of warning right there. > Actually, there is some good material in the book, but its so covered up > with screens on every page, you have to spend a lot of time digging for what > you need. An excellent example of how NOT to design pages for tech books. > Save your money. > > If you were only allowed 3 books to learn how to write both desktop and > Compact Framework database apps, my choices would be: > > Microsoft ADO.Net, David Sceppa > Professional SQL Server 2000 Database Design, Louis Davidson > Microsoft .Net Compact Framework Kick Start, Erik Rubin, Ronnie Yates > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
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